The Paris location of a series of museums of chocolate (this brand is Choco-Story) all around the world, Musee du Chocolat is a great, interactive place for a visit to learn the history of chocolate, view many artifacts, and even do some tastings.
We stopped in around lunch time on a Monday afternoon, without an appointment. The ticket agent spoke English, and we purchased two adult tickets (each 15€ + 3€ for a hot chocolate treat at the end). The museum consists of 3 floors: ground floor consisting of the souvenir shop and a history of chocolate from the Mayans and Aztecs; the basement consisting of interesting sculptures and clothes made of chocolate and an interactive theater; the top floor showing the French history of chocolate making. There is also a class you can take in hands-on chocolate making for 40€.
Each person is given a package of truffles for later eating (they were called bon-bons but had a smooth caramel, chocolate filling). Truffles: smooth, creamy chocolatey filling; bon-bon: nut or fruit filling; pralines: crunchy, chocolatey, sugary filing. We then walked the museum, slowing reading the descriptions (everything was in 3 languages: French, Spanish, and English). There were different displays:
- on all three floors, there were dispensers for chocolate disks. Most of them had the dark chocolate, but one had also milk chocolate and white chocolate. It's AYCE, and a great place to get samples...again and again.
- two places had smell samples where you can press a button and get a whiff of add-ons like cinnamon and vanilla.
- there are picture taking opportunities. One with a throne and another virtual around the world (that gets emailed to you if you provide an email address)
- There are two theaters: One where you can 'talk' to a virtual master chocolatier and ask him predetermined questions. This is where you would eat your chocolate sample that he just showed you how it was made. The other theater has a 5 minute movie where without any commentary, visually you are shown how chocolate is produced and made.
- The top floor has a huge collection of different cups and glasses that served hot chocolate.
At the end of the tour, we were offered the hot chocolate choices. In hot water, you could add two things: the type of chocolate (dark, milk, or white) and a style: aztec or spanish. We tried both styles with dark chocolate. The aztec was very 'hot', providing a wonderful contrast to the richness of the dark chocolate. A definite must-try for 3€. We also ended up buying chocolate lip balm for 5€ as gifts.
The two employees that helped us, were both very friendly and spoke English well. We learned from them the different hot chocolate choices and how there are multiple instances of Choco-Story around the Chocolate capitols of the world (Mexico City, Brussels, Bruges, Prague, Lebanon). They had one in New York, but it closed pre-covid.. We ended up spending about 2 hours here, and felt it was worth the time and admission. read more